Poems by Adam Ross Wilson

Poems

we all know that we have heaven in our hearts

and that our souls are all too beautiful to perceive

too bright to see and too expansive to breathe

into our small hesitant lungs

 

our eyes are all so beautiful I know I’ve seen them

and the beads of sweat that come out of you

are what make the clouds so white

and your voice it sounds to me, like a piano made of trees

with groaning keys like wind chimes only deeper

with more earth and sucking roots so thirsty for the fruits

the delicious bliss of anything and everything

without wondering why, is this OK? is this a shoe I should be wearing

or will the snow freeze my toes within the hour

 

but here in heaven among skin and bones

I’m still trying to break away from where I’ve called home

and the brown pockets of sadness in my mind

and I want to let go of the envy I have for weeds

that grow unconcerned in honoured peace

and all the bitterness I carry even into the purist mountains

 

I want my heart to be the mainsail of my ship

bulging full and powering me through, grey storm waves plunging, crashing,

smashing, boom!

on and on way past the horizon, way past the furthest star

back here where you and me we’ll be the sea

and we’ll be the golden streams of light coming through the window

and we’ll be the tiny floating dust pretending to be our world

drifting like glacial spray or the fur shake of the earth

or just the eternally euphoric starry mirage

 

I Want to Be…

I want to be as sensitive as an old Navajo Indian

casting huge rays of hope out over the hazy horizon

staring, cross legged at the sky with cold, earthy eyes soaked for days in bottomless pools of warm

compassion

I want to be in tune with the moon

accept my love from the sun

receive my news from the stars

reveal the gold in an unknown heart

feel the freedom of every unheld hand

experience the absolute bliss of my open soul

in full bloom

yeah

 

Poem

from every window of my house

I could see how deep it was

its turning tides and relentless waves, surging

its beautiful twilight calms, its grey days

then a monsoon hit my tropic

tore down all my shelter

caused havoc in every haven

even the caves hidden up in the hills

were washed clean and flooded

I was swept up in the muddy torrents

a downhill slide past all my neighbours

ripping my hands on the rocks

desperately snatching at anything

but nothing survived, no roots went deep enough

struggling, I crashed into the sea

a huge, hole, dark and cold

empty lungs about to give up

or drown, I didn’t know

swirled and tossed and hurtled out

through karmic rips and currents

dragging me towards distant redemption

when I surfaced it was night

with more stars than I could see

the full moon was close and soft

I was floating easy, like a cork

and there was no land to be seen

so I laid back and waited for the sun

 

The Inevitable

I’m being drawn in by the magnet of love

pulled along the road tumbling over the bumps

dragged through flower beds crashing through thorns

scratched up and bruised but I relish these wounds

they remind me of how I’ve come to this vista

 

The Long Awaited

I groaned with pleasure the other day

because I could finally feel my heart

on a hard wooden bench I lay

looking through the trees

to a distant ragged ridge

in an ecstasy that blurred my vision

I swear heaven was below me

and mere happiness seemed poor

I was me, to the bone

to the marrow

I met a hermit on the trail to the great waterfall

he hugged me and made gestures toward the sky

we sat down in the dust and talked all afternoon

he told me I was close to my soul

I swam naked at dawn

like a child of the sea

and I walked over the land like a native

I saw the stars fade away

I felt the warmth of the sun

and I showed up for breakfast purified

But I was already full

nourished on nature’s love

and since then its gotten warmer and warmer